No more plug!

As of April 6, Autumn is officially free of her plug! She certainly doesn't see it as gloriously as we do, but I am so excited to finally be over this chapter in parenting for her! Autumn has always had a love affair with her plug, and it was a great sense of soothing and calming for her. When she was upset, the plug would do wonders. The older she became however, the more she wanted it outside of sleeping, resting or for soothing when she was upset. She wanted it ALL THE TIME. I don't usually care too much what other people think parenting wise, so I didn't even realize when she turned 3 and was still using it that it wasn't normal. At almost 4 and a half years old though, it's finally gone.

We did it cold turkey - not exactly how I envisioned doing it, but in the midst of a tantrum I made the threat to cut it off, her last and final plug. When she didn't take my threat seriously and continued the behavior - chop chop. I felt really bad at the time that it was so traumatic for her, but it needed to be done and I was so tired of constantly being asked, "Where's my pluggy???!!!" when she would lose track of it.

It went better than I expected. Going to bed only took about 15 minutes longer than usual, and I kept playing up the "Plug Fairy" who would bring her a toy, and that the plug fairy needed her plug to give to other little boys and girls. The problem however, is the next day she went to Nana's while I had to go to work and she FOUND one of her pluggies there in the playroom. Nana eventually took it away, and I was able to use a toy from the "pluggy fairy" to barter for the plug she'd found.

The next day, the plug fairy (aka Nana) dropped off another surprise gift since Autumn had given up not only one, but two plugs.

Autumn went from asking 3-4 times a day for her plug to maybe once every few days. I can't believe it's over! She just seems so much more grown up now and while I agree weaning her off it was long over due, I wouldn't really change anything. Plugs are magical things and I support and love them 100%!